3000 Trees

A powerful performance from award-winning playwright Andy Paterson had me enthralled. Set in Yes Hub it’s a wee bit of distance from your festival central but all- the-better for escaping the throngs of people in the centre of festival mania. Y’ill no get a flyer for this up the Royal Mile, hen. This was a well-researched adventure into the life of the now dead/murdered Scottish activist lawyer and SNP MP Willie MacRae. You may or not have heard of this guy. He died in1985 in an apparent suicide. The gun used was found many metres from his body. The recovery companies employed to take away the car both claim that they did. I couldn’t have been both companies. His house was broken into an documents removed. Suspicious? Yes.

Willie was a lawyer of some infamy. He took on cases that promoted equality and which protected those fighting for the end-game of the sovereignty of the nation. He upset the establishment and was being closely monitored by the police and secret service. Cases that would likely have todays lawyers shitting in their breeks for fear of breaking ranks and showing some principles. The play is a portrait of a man, who almost peerless, heckled the hacks and politicians of the day and drove his point home. The mysterious circumstances of his untimely death – and the fact there has never been a fatal accident enquiry despite compelling evidence make this a compelling piece.

A recent 12000-strong petition to the Lord Advocate fell on deaf ears. MacRae had a dossier which indicted the higher echelons of British society into paedophile rings and reportedly had evidence of corruption to the highest level in the UK Nuclear industry at its inception. It is well scripted and forcefully performed by Paterson who is an impressive orator. The sory is told in monologue and song. The Q&A after was almost as compelling as the play. Off with their fucking heads! FIVE STARS